A touch panel is known as an input interface which is mounted on a display panel to display an image and enables direct operational inputs onto the screen of the display panel. When the touch panel is directly touched with a finger, a pen or the like, event information on the touch input including the positional coordinates of the contact point is input to a software program. Then, the software program is executed according to the event information, so that various operations including alteration of the display content of the display panel according to the positional coordinates of the contact point are performed.
Being light and thin, touch panels are widely used as the input interface of a portable terminal premised on the portable use.
Some touch panels are simultaneously detectable a plurality of contact points. Such a touch panel is called “multi-touch panel”. Various apparatuses using the multi-touch panel are disclosed. For example, Unexamined Japanese Patent Application KOKAI Publication No. 2001-290585 discloses an apparatus capable of manipulating an image displayed on the display panel (e.g., selection, inversion, rotation, movement and magnification/reduction of an object) based on the positional coordinates or the like of a plurality of contact points detected by the multi-touch panel.
Unexamined Japanese Patent Application KOKAI Publication No. 2009-211704 discloses a method capable of configuring individual views in a specific window as a multi-touch view or a single-touch view to simplify information processing of touch events.
Some portable terminals are equipped with a plurality of display panels to simultaneously display information as much as possible while maintaining the portability. A touch panel is mounted on each display panel.
A portable terminal equipped with a plurality of display panels can display images in various modes. For example, images based on the same software program can be displayed over a plurality of display panels. This mode can allow images based on the same software program to be displayed widely even when the individual display panels are small.
When images based on the result of executing the same software program are displayed over a plurality of display panels, however, the software program in use cannot identify touch inputs over a plurality of touch panels as simultaneous inputs even when the software program is compatible with simultaneous inputs at a plurality of contact points. This lowers the operability of the apparatus.